Fitz Hugh Ludlow

Who was Fitz Hugh Ludlow?

Fitz Hugh Ludlow, sometimes seen as “Fitzhugh Ludlow,” was an American author, journalist, and explorer; best known for his autobiographical book The Hasheesh Eater.

The explorations of altered states of consciousness in The Hasheesh Eater are at the same time eloquent descriptions of elusive subjective phenomena and surreal, bizarre, and beautiful literature.

Ludlow also wrote about his travels across America on the overland stage to San Francisco, Yosemite and the forests of California and Oregon, in his second book, The Heart of the Continent. An appendix to that book provides his impressions of the recently founded Mormon settlement in Utah.

He was also the author of many works of short fiction, essays, science reporting and art criticism. He devoted many of the last years of his life to attempts to improve the treatment of opiate addicts.